CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION -- Steven Choe, an associate professor of Cinema at San Francisco State University, is interested in darkness and light: how narratives are used to justify violence in both film and the outside world, but also how they might spur forgiveness instead.
He joined the University last fall as a member of its new research cluster on violence, trauma and health. The interdisciplinary group, one of two created to focus on topics important to society, also includes professors in psychology and kinesiology. He says his new job offered an opportunity to widen his work from writing on theory and aesthetics to testing his ideas in real-world situations.
“I’m very interested in how individuals justify violence against another,” says Choe, who studies stories of revenge, especially in German and Korean cinema. He would like to take his inquiry a step further: “How can these narratives of violence be interrupted so individuals aren’t committing these acts?”
Photo by Hannah Anderson